


Where the dead lies but does not sleep

by Skaas



Category: Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu | Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Genre: Afterlife, Can be romance or friendship, Depends on reader, Really depressed after the anime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 07:33:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14666337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skaas/pseuds/Skaas
Summary: They do not meet in the afterlife.Kircheis, who remained impossibly pure despite the unending cruelty and blood spilled across the universe, moves on to Fólkvangr while Reinhard is forced to remain in Valhalla.Reinhard finds it surprisingly ironic, that they are to be separated even in death.





	Where the dead lies but does not sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Putting a finished for now, but might continue this if I have ideas in the future.

They do not meet in the afterlife.

Kircheis, who remained impossibly pure despite the unending cruelty and blood spilled across the universe. Who never laid a single hand on the innocent yet remained strong and loyal to Reinhard until the very end. Who was a hero more than Reinhard ever has been does not pass on to Valhalla. Instead he moves on to Fólkvangr, the distant utopia, a meadow where all past pain is erased and the world remains forever in stasis.

Reinhard finds it surprisingly ironic, that they are to be separated even in death. That after all this time, he couldn’t even tell him with his own words that he’s kept the promise and taken the universe in his hands.

The first person he meets in the afterlife is Oberstein, no longer aging and with actual eyes instead technology made ones that glows eerily even if the sun is out. He comes to the little cottage Reinhard wakes up in without being called. An old dog following by his side and sniffs curiosity at the flowers (violets) in the garden.

“My excellency.” He says, and then they both remain silent until the sun goes down. There never really was anything to say between them, and there never will be now. The tea Reinhard makes (he makes his own tea now, cooks his own meal as well. Just like the old days in the army where he trusts no one but him) remains untouched. 

Oberstein leaves when the horizon is a beautiful crimson, like the flame of a Phoenix, or a comet, perhaps. He salutes one last time and leaves. Valhalla is incredibly large, filled with souls of unable to pass on to peace, and they do not meet again.

Time is a fickle thing in Valhalla, sometime a day passes in the span of a moment, other times an entire year is but a day. The sun raises one day, but doesn’t raise the other.

The flowers gloom in his garden, but they never did wither.

The second person he meets, surprisingly, or perhaps not, is Yang Wenli. The first time they meet, the man yelps, jumps about half a meter, drops the cartoon of milk he is carrying and runs away. He gets halfway across the market before sheepishly returning to grab his milk and runs away again.

Reinhard feels incredibly embarrassed that he was almost defeated by a man like this.

Never the less, after bumping into each other about three more times because Reinhard is not going to change markets just because of this one man, they get into a comfortable routine where Yang brings him eggs from the chicken he now owns (yes, Yang Wenli owns chickens now, why could he own chickens) and trades them for his flowers that never wither.

“Why do you even need so many flowers” Reinhard asks one day. “It not like they die or anything, stop making me pick them.”

“What?” Says the man “Are you asking me to give you free eggs?”

Most of the time they talk about foolish historians who loses to the most obvious plans ever while they argue about the rights and wrongs of democracy over the chess board. Their views never do line up, but they don’t stray too far either. Sometimes, if they have too much to drink, which is actually pretty often, since Yang is surprisingly an almost crazy alcoholic and Kircheis isn’t here to stop Reinhard. Yang talks about the adopted son that he forced onto the battlefield, the old man that he wasn’t able to save, and the wife that he couldn’t stay beside. Sometimes, when Reinhard isn’t so drunk that he’s wallowing in his own self-pity and seeing the ghost of his best friend smiling at him from somewhere so close yet so far away, he almost feels sorry for the man.

Being in Valhalla isn’t much different from being alive. He dies and lives even in his death. He wakes up in the morning, gets up, change the sheets in both bed even know it’s not usually his duty, cooks breakfast for two, which is his duty, then goes out to water the flowers and take a walk around the park. Here, there is no universe for him to conquer, no army for him to lead, and no promises for him to keep.

He never does meet Reuenthal again. Instead he meets Mittermeyer in what he believes to be the twenty-third years he’s been trapped in Valhalla. The man looks and speaks just as how he did in his late twenties, brave and incredibly hopeful. Apparently it took an army four times his own to finally do the man in. 

“I took out most of them with me thou!” The man boasts, and the children around him makes appreciative ooooh sounds. They will never really understand what Mittermeyer really said, having died too young to really know anything.

Reinhard does not comment on the fact that war has broken out less than thirty years after his death.

“Any plans on where to stay?” Reinhard asks, he prefers to live on his own, but know a kind old couple (He never did understand why some people came to Valhalla in the bloom of youth and others old and wrinkled) who build a few house too many in their boredom.

“No worries.” Mittermeyer says “I’m going to be running around for a bit, catch up with some old friends, want to come along, Mein Keiser?”

Reinhard shakes his head no.

Mittermeyer leaves the next day, it is the first time Reinhard sees him in clothes other than his uniform.

That next day he calls over Yang Wenli, who comes with milk instead of eggs because apparently his chickens are rebelling. They have a toast under the half-moon and pretend they actually know each other better than they really do.

“I have often wondered,” Says Reinhard “there are so many kind people in this world, why did Kircheis alone go to the other side?”

Yang Wenli grabs another drink.

“In fact,” He continues “how do I even know he went to Fólkvangr.”

“I think,” says Yang Wenli “you know the answer to all of those questions.”

When he was alive Reinhard often thought Kircheis as his other half, someone as family in everything but name, Reinhard even knows that he would die for his one and only friend any time. Yet, they are not the same, he will never share the optimism that made Kircheis, will, kircheis. Yes, even when everything else faltered, his friend never did, or he never had the chance too, even with the entire universe against him, Kircheis never did change.

“Why did you follow me?” Reinhard asked one day, when they were still in the army and had nothing but each other and their dreams, not because he questioned Kircheis loyalty, but because he trusted the man with all his heart.

“Because.” Said Kircheis “You are more human than you believe.”

Kircheis, who remained himself when all others changed around him, who blocked the entire world even as he accepted all. Reinhard was more human than he ever was.

…Yes, for Kircheis, who passed on with no regret in his life and no will to battle, Fólkvangr is more of a home to him than Valhalla ever will be.

“Tomorrow, I am going on a journey.” Says Reinhard.

“It’s about damn time.” Says Yang Wenli.

**Author's Note:**

> In Norse Mythology, for those who died in battle, those with wishes they haven't achieved or the will to continue to battle goes to Valhalla, the other half goes to Folkvangr


End file.
